When Dark Horse Comics had the license to publish Aliens-related comic books, it didn’t take them long to launch crossovers with other properties; the first of which was the stunning, iconic and hugely influential Aliens vs Predator, way back in 1989. Aliens crossed over into an absolutely crazy number of different series, with varying levels of success; some of their DC crossovers, such as Batman/Aliens, ended up being, somewhat surprisingly, very good indeed.

When Dark Horse lost the license to Marvel, thanks to parent company Disney buying 20th Century Fox (who owned the rights to the Aliens, and Predator, franchises), it felt like it was only a matter of time before the characters appeared in the Marvel Universe, but the comic book publisher’s approach has been admirably restrained. Predator has crossed over with Wolverine (very successfully, I may add) and very recently, Black Panther, but the Xenomorphs from Aliens have remained in their own universe.

Until now. Marvel have brought together Jonathan Hickman, a writer responsible for some incredibly dense, long term comic book storytelling, and the hugely talented Esad Ribic, whose highly detailed, gorgeous painted art is never less than stunning. Together, this dream team have created Aliens vs Avengers; so how does the first issue deal with bringing the two series together for the first time?

The Shi’ar are apparently in possession of Xenomorphs, and are using them to experiment on various alien races, creating monstrous new strains of creature in the process. The space-faring Wakandans try to stop them, but it’s too late; the Shi’ar have seeded various worlds with Xenomorphs, with Earth being one of them.

Though, when this issue starts, it begins to feel almost immediately like a classic Jonathan Hickman creation, which is to say that it uses slightly more obscure characters than casual readers will be familiar with, and also seems to be going a little deep on lore, after the extended prologue it quickly shifts gear and becomes something very different indeed. Familiar characters are ripped from their comfy status quo and thrust into a seemingly hopeless, endless battle against the Xenomorphs, with many heroes having already fallen by the time the story properly begins.

As a fan of Aliens, I had serious reservations about how well the Xenomorphs would work in a Marvel Universe-based story, without it becoming a campy crossover of the type that too many have become.

I needn’t have worried; in Hickman and Ribic’s very capable hands, this is a comic that doesn’t skimp on the very real threat that the Xenomorphs pose, nor does it shy away from actually killing off characters, albeit many of this happening off-screen (and handily leaving the door open for surprise character returns later in the series, no doubt).

Regardless of that, with Ribic’s stunning, pseudo-realistic, painted art and Hickman’s clever script, Aliens vs Avengers is off to a brilliant start with this first issue, and it ends on one hell of a leftfield cliffhanger too.